Cllr Lionel Grundy, Cabinet member for
Children’s Services presented a report which proposed a
revised 11 to 19 Commissioning Strategy. The Strategy had been
developed by Wiltshire Children’s Trust Partnership which
brought together all agencies working with children and young
people. The Strategy would also ensure the best use of overall
resources available to support young people within Wiltshire,
ensuring there were no gaps or overlaps in provision.

The Partnership was seeking endorsement of the
Strategy by this Council.

The Strategy and the report presented outlined
the strategic direction for reshaping youth services in Wiltshire
and for making savings (£450k in 2012/13) from current
expenditure on youth work provided by the Council’s Youth
Development service.

The suggestions for reshaping the Youth
Development service that were consulted on were namely, testing the
market to assess whether there could be an alternative provider for
youth services; developing local partnerships with the voluntary
sector; closer alignment with campus developments and reduced
reliance on use of the existing 24 dedicated youth centres.

Cllr Grundy reassured Cabinet that Wiltshire
would continue to provide open access youth work in all community
areas. There would be a move towards focussing more Council
resource on one to one targeted work with young people where it was
needed. Youth advisory groups would be implemented in each area
with links to Area Boards to look at the needs of young people.
There would be greater use of volunteers in running open access
youth work who would always work alongside qualified staff.

The necessary financial savings would be made
through a mixture of income generation, from centrally held budgets
and open access youth work staff. It
was noted that discussions with the Deputy Chief Constable
confirmed that the Police were very supportive of the Strategy as a
whole and for the proposed changes to the Youth Development
service.

Cllr Richard Clewer explained the consultation
undertaken and feedback received. He was clear that
no youth centre buildings would close as a result of the proposals
put forward for re-shaping the Youth Development
Service.

The report of the Rapid Scrutiny Task Group
held on 9 September 2011 to consider the Strategy in detail for
recommendation to this Cabinet meeting, which included a number of
recommendations was presented. Cllr Jon Hubbard, Lead member on the
Task Group and Cllr Jacqui Lay, member of the Task Group summarised
the views of the Task Group.

Cllr Grundy in thanking the Task Group for its
work, commented that he was disappointed with its findings given that
he, Cllr Clewer and the Service Director for Commissioning and
Performance had gone through the report in great detail and
responded to all questions and concerns. He did, however, undertake
to work with Scrutiny to deliver the outcomes of the Strategy.

Resolved:

That
Cabinet agrees the strategic direction and priorities outlined in
the 11 to 19 Commissioning Strategy as detailed at Appendix 1 of
the report presented, including agreeing the following: